


Always Starting Over

by Emily_P



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, all mortal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-30
Packaged: 2018-03-25 23:23:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3828715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emily_P/pseuds/Emily_P
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will Solace hardly knew his father, but when his mother died, he found himself in his dad's custody. Which meant moving to New York City and starting at Brookly Accademy for the the Gifted, where his father taught. Will wasn't looking forward to it at all, but a few new friends might just make it kind of okay. Maybe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look, I started writing a theater kid all mortal AU that’s just an excuse for me to write Solangelo and use all my favorite minor characters and a bunch of show tunes. I don’t have any idea where this story is going, all I know is that it was in my brain and I didn’t want it there anymore.

Will drew a kite in the marks his breath left on the car window. 

The car moved forward, no matter how hard he wished it would stop and take him back to the only place he had ever known as home. He was born in New Jersey, raised in the same house with his mother and grandparents. And now he was being shipped off to a place much larger than he was. Because the courts told him he had no choice. 

He would miss the end of his sophomore year of normal high school and start at some school for the preforming arts in New York City. All because his father (a man who had never been much more than a name of check) won custody of him. 

“And you’re sure I have to go?” Will asked his grandfather. 

“Yes, but we’ll come visit as often as you’d like. And you can come down whenever. We’ve talked to your father, he’s not going to hold you hostage.” His grandmother replied for him. 

“He might as well be.” Will mumbled into the glass, fading the kite. 

His father’s apartment was dwarfed by Will’s memory of his home. He would be sharing a room with a sister he had never met, and a bathroom with a dad he never cared to know. He tried to organize the small book space he was given while his father talked at him. 

“I was devastated to hear about your mother, but I’m glad you’re here now. You can start looking for other schools to transfer to next year if you want. For now, it’s just easier for you to start at BAG.” His dad told him. He was some creative director there, or something, and his sister was some gifted piano prodigy. Will was good at making dogs bark. 

“I’ll leave you alone for a little while, but I’d like to take you to see the school in a bit. You’ll start monday. If you’re ready.” The door closed. 

He use to get painfully homesick, he couldn’t even stand to be at sleepovers. His mother would always pick him up without question or judgement. She promised she would always be there to bring him home. 

Will pulled a frame out of his suitcase. Leaving her behind was the hardest, but if Will ever tried to bury her out of Jersey, he was pretty sure he’d be haunted forever. One look at the picture – a young woman and a small child he hardly recognized – made him remember all the changes, and he couldn’t do much more in that moment than sit and cry, wishing more than anything that his grandpa would pick him up and bring him home to his mother. 

He pulled out a few more decorations he hoped his sister wouldn’t mind, and tried to compose himself. Slowly, he walked out of the bedroom. 

He guessed his dad had either heard him, or he was worse at hiding his emotions than he thought he was, because he was immediately pulled into a hug. “I know it’s a change,” His father told him, “but I want this to work.” 

Will tried his best to hug back sincerely. 

A half hour later they were on their way uptown to the school. The building looked like all the others, the name on the front was the only thing that gave it away as being a school. 

The tour was fairly brief - there was an academic wing, and a performance wing.  _It’s like FAME in here_ , Will though as his dad pointed out classrooms he would be in. “Your sister should be around here some where…” 

The found her a few minutes later, in a blaze of anger. 

“Sondheim?! SONDHEIM!” 

Will didn’t know who she was at first – all he saw was a blaze of fire engine red hair and an arm covered in tattoos push him out of the way. 

“Kayla, this is Will, Will this is Kayla.” He said calmly, ignoring her shouts. 

“Nice to meet you,” Will mumbled. 

She turned and smiled, “I’m not usually screaming at him,” She turned back, “but I do, when he decided to do Into the Woods! Do you know how hard that is to play?!” 

“Yes,” his dad put a hand on her shoulder to calm her, “but I have total faith in you.” He looked past her at Will, “We’re pretty much done. Kay, why don’t you take him to meet your friends.” 

Will didn’t want to meet a bunch of new people, but it was better than empty rooms. 

“Dad’s told me a lot about you.” Kayla said, leading him through a couple of dark hallways. 

“He has?” 

“Oh yeah, I always get stories about my brother in New Jersey.” 

“He never talked to me.” Will said, disappointed. 

Kayla turned around, “Look, Will, I don’t want to start anything about Dad’s behavior. He does try, though, just give him a chance. He’s pretty cool.” She smiled, desperately trying to sell him on the subject. 

“I don’t really have any other choice, do I?” 

“No, but he loves you and accepts you.” Kayla said. Something about her undertone made Will painfully aware of what she meant. 

“Do you….I mean… so you know?” 

“Yeah, I’m sorry if you didn’t want me to, but …” She looked almost like she had been caught snooping through someone else’s diary. 

“It’s ok, just don’t tell anyone else, ok? I’d like some freedom before everyone starts asking about my…” Will gestured at his whole body. 

Kayla nodded, “I get it.” She turned to keep walking, but then turned back abruptly, “Just wanna make sure, it’s he/him pronouns, right?” 

Will smiled, this might actually be ok, he though. “Yeah, they are.” 

“Awesome! Anyway, here are.” She opened the door to a choir room where a strange mesh of people were sitting around some broken music stands and an abused piano. “Will, this is everybody, everybody this is my brother Will.” 

He got a mixed tone of “hey”s back from the group. He saw some boy nudge a girl to stand up. She came over and shook his hand. “Hi, I’m Drew, the school slut.” 

“Drew!” Kayla yelled. 

“I lost a bet!” the girl, Drew, defended. 

“What was the bet?” Kayla asked. 

“Nico and I bet whether or not your dad would pick Into the Woods for our final play. I bet he wouldn’t, because I thought your dad loved you.” 

Kayla rolled her eyes. “Anyway… Will, welcome to the choir room of misfit toys.” She moved past Drew and took a seat on the floor in between the boy who had shoved Drew and a dark haired girl. “Oh, Will, this is Miranda, she’s my girlfriend.” Will waved. 

“I’m Nico,” the boy next to him extended a hand. 

“Nice to meet you.” 

“Kayla, can we run the song again?” Drew asked from the piano. 

“Yeah.” Kayla pulled herself off the ground, and Miranda leaned close to Will. 

“Have you ever seen her play before?” Will shook his head, “You’re in for something amazing.” 

“You should hear Drew sing.” Nico said. The song started.

_“Thank you for finding me. And thank you for the care. And fuck you for making me think that this life might be fair” Drew sang._

They we’re both right. This was obviously a school for gifted students, and obviously not a school for him. 

_“In a brand new story.  Am I always back at one after all I’ve done? ‘Cause I’ve burned all of my bridges, and learned every last lesson too. So how can I start new?”_

Will watched the pair. He wondered where such a big voice came from in such a small human.

_“What the gods have to give, I’ll take, and I’ll live, and be bold!”_

“She’s gonna kill it at the cabaret.” Miranda said. 

_“We can leave life for tomorrow. Or grieve all that we thought we’d do. Or make each moment new.”_

“When hasn’t she?” Nico asked back. 

_“And my love, our life is over. But love, I’ll make you one last vow, to start over, and over, and over somehow. My new life starts right now!”_

Will didn’t want to start crying, and he tried his best to hide it. Music just wasn’t what he needed then. But it was good. He’d give them that. 

“I think,” Kayla started, “that we’re good for today, and that we should all get ice cream.” 

“Oh hell yes!” a voice from the back called, “let’s get the fuck out of here!” 

“Nothing is better than food!” Another voice yelled. 

Will stopped crying and started to laugh. At least teenagers were pretty much all the same where ever you were. No mater how gifted or average they were. 


	2. New York State of Mind

“I thought I wasn’t going to have to take performance classes.” Will complained Sunday morning, looking over his schedule. 

“I’m sorry Will, but they’re a requirement.” His dad told him. 

Will groaned and sank down, wishing he could drown in his froot loops. “But modern dance?” 

“It’s the basic level, and one of our best teachers teaches it, she’ll help you.” Will wasn’t even sure he knew what modern’ dance was. 

“And vocal performance? I don’t know if you’ve ever heard me sing, but I’ve been kick out of church choirs. Church choirs!” Will complained even louder. 

“You should stop letting him spend so much time with me,” Kayla said from the couch, “he’s starting to yell like me.” 

His dad looked at him, “I teach that section, just show up, do the bare minimum, and I’ll make it painless.” 

“Does that mean I need to perform?” 

It did. 

He sat in class on Monday sore from what ever modern dance was, listening to a bunch of kids sing their cabaret numbers, while he hoped his dad didn’t make him get up and sing. 

Will watched the kid from yesterday, run through Billy Joel’s New York State of Mind, which wasn’t making Will like the city any more, no matter how nice of a voice the guy had. 

“It was so easy living day by day, out of touch with the rhythm and blues. But now I need a little give and take. The New York Times, The Daily News” 

His dad was at the piano, and occasionally looked over to make sure Will wasn’t having a break down or anything. WIll knew that his dad and his sister were walking on eggshells around him, no matter how much they tried to play it off. If his dad really didn’t want to upset him, he wouldn’t have put him in modern dance. 

“I don’t have any reasons, I’ve left them all behind, I’m in a New York state of mind. I’m just taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line. ‘Cause I’m in a New York state of mind.” 

Nico finished the song to a small round of applause. He sat down next to Will. 

“Are you going to sing anything?” He asked. 

Will scoffed. “Only if you want to see me throw up anywhere.” 

“Well, nobody wants that.” He joked. They didn’t talk for the rest of the class. 

Will sat through song after song, each one making him feel less and less talented. When he felt his phone buzz in his pocket, he was grateful for a distraction. 

Kayla: Yo we’re getting starbucks after class meet up at my locker 

Will: Ok where is your locker 

Kayla: 2nd floor #894 i’ll stand next to it :P 

Will smiled, he was exhausted from the day, but he was glad for some opportunity to talk to people, who (hopefully) wouldn’t be singing the whole time. 

Something interesting about theater kids was … they did seem to be singing all the time. If they weren’t singing they were making jokes, or speaking in funny voices. It was a lot to handle. 

“You get use to it.” A voice said next to him. Will turned and recognized the girl as Miranda, Kayla’s girlfriend. “I play the flute, and somehow ended up in this group. Don’t worry, they’re not bad.” 

“I’m not worried,” Will said, sipping at his drink,”I just… don’t get any of it.” 

Miranda smiled, “You’ll catch on. I’m coming over tonight. Kay and I will show you some of their,” she gestured generally at the group, “favorites. I hope you like Les Mis.” 

They all shuffled out of the Starbucks, and Will looked up at the towering buildings. When he first came to the city when he was little, and every time since, he always felt small and alone. With all the people shuffling past him, not caring if he was lost or fell over, he didn’t like the isolation. He didn’t get why people flocked her. 

“Bro!” Kayla nearly jumped on his back, throwing one arm around him, and lifting the other, iPhone in hand. “We need a picture of you, post first day at BAG!” She held out her arm to take a selfie, fitting both of their faces in the shot, Will couldn’t help but note some resemblance. He looked at her arm, and focused on one of her many tattoos – around her wrist was what looked like the whole city skyline. If she could fit it around her wrist, Will was sure he’d find a way to stop seeing as a giant monster. 

“Perfect!” She put her phone away, and looped their arms together. “Come on, dad’s making pasta.” She pulled him along with her, Miranda skipping next to them. Will laughed and noticed nobody was staring at them like a bunch of teenage hooligans. He finally got the appeal of the city. If you had the right people around you, you had all the privacy in the world.


End file.
